Succession – which option is best for you?

Succession was the topic for our latest Deep Dive webinar which we hosted earlier this week. More than 150 people registered for the event, highlighting how topical the subject matter is.

Succession – the webinar

The format of our webinar involved three of us advocating for one of a Trade Sale, Management Buy Out and Employee Ownership Trust as the ‘best’ succession option.

This is obviously an artificial construct, but it was designed to elicit debate and explore the relative pros, cons and matters to consider in choosing the appropriate option.

You can watch the recording of the webinar below or here: https://vimeo.com/725670648

Deep Dive Webinar – Succession.mp4 from PKF Francis Clark on Vimeo.

The key messages from the webinar include:

Understand as fully as possible the options available to you
Understand what you want from an exit – financial and non-financial aspects
Be aware of the ‘art of the possible’ e.g., it is possible to carry out an MBO with a management team who may not have the funds to invest in the transaction themselves
Look to match the succession route with personal objectives
Consider fully the tax implications of a particular option and seek advice to ensure any planning or structuring that can be undertaken is done so early on
Timing is key and planning is essential in achieving your objectives
Do not forget external market and political factors that can have significant influence on your outcome

Succession – next steps for you?

If the webinar has piqued your interest in exploring your succession options further, please contact us for a conversation specific to your circumstances.

It may be that we can add value to the process for you by carrying out an Options Review. This considers succession through the specific lens of you and your business. The review generally starts with a desk top valuation and moves on to look at things such as the level of deal activity in the sector and your management team’s aspirations. We have undertaken a number of these and have found in several cases that the result is not the one that the business owner believed would be best for them initially.

Succession – future PKF Francis Clark events

If you would like to be invited to future events around succession options, please let me know and I would suggest keeping an eye on our website for details of future events and other relevant articles.

Deep Dive events

Our Deep Dive webinars will be back in the Autumn, we have some ideas for subject matter we would like to be covered, but if you have anything you would like us to focus on within the broad themes of future finance; sustainability or technology please let me know.

Recordings of recent Deep Dive webinars can be found here: